Welcome to Gaia! ::

Actually, I've been working on a map since I started making all the places.

I repeatedly said it, and answered people
s queries for a map from the start.

You simply, as you tend to do, did not know all the facts and suggested something that had already been in the works for a good month.

Make people RP at least once every three days lest they be banned! scream

Well okay... I need help on updating Durem. If anyone has any ideas on how to make the place more interesting, lemme know... because I'm just about empty of ideas today. Perhaps I'll think of something later- perhaps not.

It's the not that I'm worried about... so I'm formally asking for help. Please lend your assistance in the update of that thread.

Thank you.

A day without internet makes me a bored person. I sat around watching old movies all day and pondered the oddness of stuff. So here it is... some pointless ramblings.

Wizards and Magic
In the RP world, 'magic', used in the broadest of terms, plays a big role to the fantasy setting of things. It is what seperates dull reality from interesting world of imagination; it makes what was currently impossible into something that is possible. It simply adds flavour to a roleplay and makes things more interesting.

However, as most other things in economics or whatever, its not exactly an extraordinary thing once everyone and everything possesses the ability. What makes such a thing as wonderous as it is is the rarity of it. What makes magic a powerful thing if everyone possesses it? Why be a wizard when you can be a great warrior, who not only is he a skilled swordsman, but is also an expert spellcaster?

So now heres an idea... Limitations on the use of magic.

First, take a sterotypical wizard. What makes them distinct other than the fact that they are skilled in the use of magic? Appearance is one thing; they usually wear flowing robes, carry books and pouches of spell components, staffs/wands and other magical devices, and they are generally physically below average.

Now, take a stereotypical warior. Unlike the wizard, the warrior wears armour, carries weapons, and is physically fit.

Now of course, many people play characters who are a combination of both, taking the physical prowess of a warrior, and giving them 'powers' similar to what a wizard can do. Basically, no matter what you call it, ability/power/magic, its all the same thing. Something that normally isnt possible. This of course, pretty much makes a wizard obsolete.

A wizard is frail of health. Why? Because they devote themselves to the art of magic, a skill based on knowledge, control, and focus. Unlike the warrior, a mage trains the mind rather than the body, kind of like a tradeoff of one for the other. In return, they are highly powerful in the art.

So lets pick this thing apart a little, returning a little bit of respect to those called wizards against the endless hordes of mighty warriors that possess magical abilities, with a Gaian twist of course.

As we all know it, nobody is willing to just go and forsake their characters powers for fairness sake, so instead of taking something away from the strong, we add something to the weak.

Take a random character and then take their special ability. Usually it has something to do with one element or another, plus the fact that they are super skilled swordsmen or whatever. They can weild such powers on a whim, even if they are the simplest of simpletons, like a human or something.

Now, we give a mage more power in such a way...

So say, if they were as normal as any other character, they'd be able to weild a chosen element as an ability on a whim. However, being one that studies magic as opposed to physical excersise, the mage is able to weild more magical abilities, being a character solely based on that and all. But then arises the problem of a mage that can do anything on a whim with magic. Limitations however will prevent this.

As stated before, stereotypically speaking, a mage appears as they do because of the profession thay choose. Say any warrior can control whatever one or two elements they have chosen from the inner planes. A mage however, gains access from all of them due to rigorous studies. Also, say something like a plain human warrior also has such powers to cast small amounts of magic on a whim; take into account that such a mage who is human will only also be able to cast limited forms of magic on a whim, being something which is not extraordinary in any way normally.

But now factor in what makes the person a wizard, based on the stereotypes.

• A mage wears flowing robes because of the more complex and destructive spells they can cast, usually involves intricate hand motions or whatever. They wear something loose and flowing because it does not restrict movement of the body.
  
• A mage carries spellbooks and spell components on them because of the sheer amount of spells one is capable of casting, but the numbers are so high it requires a complicated list of regents, and phrasings to cast. The spell components are carried as a fuel to power the stronger more complex spells.
  
• A mage usually carries a wand, staff, or some other device as a focal point to cast spells. Doesnt sound like much on its own, but take into account that if a simple human warrior has limited control of a single element, then a wizard does too, only add in the fact that the wand or staff, acting as a focal point, allows the mage to control other elements which give them more power in the art.
  
• A mage appears frail of health because the tradeoff of magical knowledge and power goes againt their own physical health because of their devotion to it. Though there are exceptions where a mage may be healthy, but lacks physical combat skills.

So then, giving a mage limitless potential in the art of magic, but taking away physical combat abilites should theoretically level out the playing field and make the wizard once again something other than obsolete against all the people who run around blasting magical spells at people while swinging their swords with expert skills and doing a billion flips to avoid anything that comes at them. No longer would magic be a common and drab ability if there are those who can truely harness its power.

*Side note:
The inner planes is where the energy of magic is derived from. There are 3 energy planes, 4 elemental planes, 4 paraelemental, 8 quasielemental, and 8 I'm-not-sure-what-you'd-call-it so I'll call it para-quiasi elemental planes.

The four elemental and two of the energy planes are the major spheres where magical energy originates.

Energy
Positive
Negative
Shadow **

Elemental
Earth
Fire
Air
Water

Para-elemental
Magma (Fire + Earth)
Ice (Water + Air)
Smoke (Air + Fire)
Ooze (Earth + Water)

Quasi-elemental
Lightning (Positive + Air)
Vacuum (Negative + Air)
Radiance (Positive + Fire)
Ash (Negative + Fire)
Steam (Positive + Water)
Salt (Negative + Water)
Mineral (Positive + Earth)
Dust (Negative + Earth)

Paraquasi-elemental
Crystal (Positive + Ice)
Frost (Negative + Ice)
Clay (Positive + Ooze)
Silt (Negative + Ooze)
Obsidian (Positive + Magma)
Pumice (Negative + Magma)
Sparks (Positive + Smoke)
Fumes (Negative + Smoke)

**side note:
Shadow is considered to be neutral energy, named so for its positioning inbetween positive and negative, which could be called light and dark in this case.

Imagine the inner planes as a cube. The top and bottom surfaces are positive and negative, the four sides the elements of earth, fire, air, and water; making it so that the surfaces are the major spheres of magic. The side edges of the cube act as the four para-elemental planes, connections of two main elements. The top and bottom edges act as the eight quasi-elemental planes where a main element and an energy plane meet. And finally, the eight corners of the cube can be considered the paraquisi-elemental planes where the para-elemental planes connect to the two planes of energy. Shadow however, being the last planes, exists as neutral energy in the center of the cube.

I'm just trying to distinguish a true magic user against those who can weild magic but can also do all that other fighting stuff as well. Aand also add a little idea about how magic works; Magic as an art rather than an ability that is, hence the use of tools like a staff or wand as a focal point for the use of magic and spellbooks to contain knowledge.

Which is why magic takes practice, knowledge, and concentration. Though even with your little tangent there, I wouldn't write off ability magic as something that couldn't be performed decently. There are many ways you could do a take on something, and if you want to say that magical energy is drawn from the various elemental energy planes and refined with use of a focal point; for a natural magic user, you could simply argue that their body is a focal point, which pulls in a large amount of energy and lets them use it as they will after that.

I suggest we make Kas become less naked.

I suggest a new HoH thread.


For planning and shiz.

Then we can make a new one later for registration.